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MASTERS  IN  ART 


BORN  1828:  DIED  1900 
BELGIAN  S CHOOL 

IT  should  be  clearly  understood  that  two  Alfred  Stevenses  appear  in  the 
history  of  art.  One  was  an  Englishman  who  became  the  strongest  Eng- 
lish sculptor  of  his  day.  Some  of  his  works  — the  statues  for  the  Wellington 
Memorial,  for  example,  or  the  decorations  of  Dorchester  House  — are  ex- 
tremely fine.  This  Stevens  was  also  an  admirable  draftsman,  and  he  painted 
some  portrait  heads  which  are  very  remarkable.  The  other  Alfred  Stevens 
is  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

Alfred  Stevens,  or,  to  give  his  full  name,  Alfred  Emile  Leopold  Joseph 
Victor  Ghislain  Stevens,  was  born  in  Brussels  on  May  ii,  1828.  His  father, 
Leopold  Stevens,  had  served  in  the  army.  He  was  at  Waterloo  on  the  staff 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  It  may  be  that  Alfred  inherited  from  his  father  that 
military  allure,  that  air  of  un  beau  sabreur  that  distinguished  him  in  after-life. 
Indeed,  he  was  accounted  one  of  the  handsome  men  of  the  Second  Empire. 
His  elder  brother,  Joseph,  also  became  an  artist,  and  painted  animals  with 
marked  ability;  and  the  younger  brother,  Arthur,  became  a dealer  in  art,  who 
was  one  of  the  first  to  recognize  the  ability  of  Millet,  of  Rousseau,  and  of 
Corot. 

The  young  Stevens  may  have  inherited  some  of  his  artistry  from  his  father, 
who  had  a passion  for  pictures  and  collected  many.  His  son,  then,  did  not 
have  the  early  struggle  of  many  young  artists.  His  father  encouraged  his 
talent,  and  at  an  early  age  he  was  put  to  work  in  the  studio  of  Navez,  in  Brus- 
sels. This  Navez  was  an  honest  painter,  without  genius,  but  one  who  had 
the  intelligence  to  say  to  his  pupils,  “Look  at  Nature.  She  will  teach  you 
everything  you  need  to  know  in  the  beginning.” 

Nothing  but  drawing  was  done  in  this  atelier.  Stevens,  a born  colorist, 
longed  to  paint.  One  day  he  was  surprised,  palette  and  brushes  in  his  hand, 
by  his  master.  The  old  man  looked  long  at  his  study,  then  said,  “Put  on 
your  cap,  young  man.  We  will  go  and  talk  this  matter  over  with  your  grand- 
father.” Alfred  obeyed,  trembling,  and  after  a long  walk  was  brought  into 
the  presence  of  his  grandfather.  Monsieur  Dufoy.  “Dufoy,”  said  Navez, 
“you  see  before  you  a great  painter.”  So  at  least  the  story  runs. 

Camille  Roqueplan,  a well-known  painter  of  the  time,  was  often  in  Brus- 

[23] 


24 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


sels.  Monsieur  Dufoy  showed  some  of  Alfred’s  studies  to  him  and  the  painter 
offered  to  take  the  youth  to  Paris.  After  a short  time  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts  where,  among  other  teachers,  the  great  Monsieur  Ingres 
sometimes  corrected  his  work.  However,  Stevens  returned  to  Brussels  after 
a year  or  two  of  study  in  Paris. 

His  first  picture  was  called  ‘The  Wounded  Soldier.’  It  now  hangs  in  the 
Museum  of  Hamburg.  He  also  painted  a ‘Young  Man  drawing  an  Anatomy 
Figure.’  Both  these  early  pictures  show  the  fine  quality  of  a painter.  Roque- 
plan,  who  was  again  in  Brussels,  saw  these  canvases.  “Come  back  to  Paris 
with  me,”  he  said,  “your  place  is  with  the  masters.” 

Young  Stevens  returned  to  Paris  and  worked  in  the  studio  of  a friend, 
Florent  Willems,  who  painted  pictures  which  en’:husiasts  compared  to  Ter- 
borch.  While  of  course  this  was  much  too  high  praise,  Willems  knew  well 
the  fine  art  of  the  old  Flemings  and  Hollanders,  and  taught  it  to  Stevens. 
Stevens’s  earliest  pictures  at  this  stage  were,  indeed,  mistaken  for  Willems’s, 
but  the  young  man  soon  surpassed  the  elder.  One  of  these  paintings  was  a 
‘Young  Girl  Reading,’  which  is  quite  beautiful  in  quality. 

Our  artist  painted  various  other  pictures  at  about  this  time,  but  his  first 
great  success  was  a canvas  quite  different  from  his  later  work  called  ‘Les 
Chasseurs  de  Vincennes,’ or  ‘Ce  qu’on  appel  le  Vagabondage.’  This  rep- 
resented soldiers  taking  some  “unfortunates”  to  the  police  station.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  well  painted,  it  created  some  little  stir  on  account  of 
the  subject.  Napoleon  III.  stopped  before  the  picture  at  the  Salon  and,  re- 
marking that  such  a duty  was  unworthy  of  soldiers,  gave  orders  that  they 
should  not  be  employed  in  that  way  again.  Stevens  aftei'wards  said  that  he 
had  never  thought  of  any  political  or  sociological  intention  while  painting 
his  picture,  yet  the  canvas  achieved  a result  that  more  ambitious  problem 
pictures  often  fail  in  producing. 

His  next  important  picture  was  one  called  ‘Consolation’  (Plate  viii).  It 
represented  a weeping  woman  with  two  other  women  trying  to  console  her. 
The  picture  made  a certain  stir  in  the  Salon  and  a dealer,  pretending  to  think 
it  a rather  poor  painting,  offered  Stevens  fifteen  hundred  francs  ($300)  for 
the  painting.  The  artist  refused,  and  later  had  the  satisfaction  of  selling  the 
picture  for  six  thousand  francs.  This  picture  marks  the  real  beginning  of 
Stevens’s  successful  career.  Shortly  after  this,  being  now  on  the  top  wave  of 
prosperity,  Stevens  married  and  took  a fine  studio. 

For  Stevens  the  strong  wave  of  prosperity  had  now  set  in,  and  for  many 
years  he  had  only  to  paint  a picture  to  sell  it  for  a good  sum.  It  is  to  his  credit 
that  he  still  continued  to  make  his  paintings  with  the  utmost  care  and  con- 
science, despite  the  temptation  to  produce  clever,  scamped  work,  which  the 
dealers  would  have  eagerly  bought.  His  work  grew  more  and  more  popular, 
so  that  it  became  a question  of  whether  or  no  he  should  be  given  the  Medal 
of  Honor.  But  certain  persons  of  importance  felt  that  mere  getire  painting 
should  not  be  accorded  the  honors  paid  to  historical  painting.  Also  it  was 
felt  that  his  pictures  dealt  too  exclusively  with  women.  Robert  Fleury,  who 
was  then  a dictator  in  matters  of  art,  said  to  him,  “Promise  me  to  change 

[24] 


STEVENS 


25 


your  kind  of  subject  and  we  will  give  you  the  Medal  of  Honor.”  “ Keep  your 
medal,”  said  Stevens,  ‘‘for  me.  I’ll  keep  my  way  of  painting.” 

Stevens  painted  very  carefully  and  minutely,  but  fast,  as  well;  and  from 
something  he  says  himself  one  may  guess  he  sometimes  turned  out  as  many 
as  thirty  pictures  a year.  Money  poured  in,  and  he  spent  it  royally  in  rich 
stuffs  and  Japanese  screens  and  vases  and  bronzes.  For  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  appreciate  Japanese  art  in  its  curious  revival  in  the  “sixties.”  Jap- 
anese art  had  a great  vogue  in  France  in  Louis  xv.’s  time.  But  then,  they 
were  curios  that  were  most  affected,  idols,  pagodas,  and  “stuffs  printed  with 
flowers.”  Later  this  interest  in  'Japonoiseries  suffered  an  eclipse. 

But  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixties  Paris  came  again  under  the  influence  of 
this  delightful  Japanese  art.  Somebody,  Braquemond  the  engraver,  it  is 
said,  discovered  a lot  of  prints  from  Hokusai,  used,  so  the  story  goes,  for 
wrapping-paper.  He  showed  these  to  other  artists.  A veritable  rage  for  Jap- 
anese prints  developed.  Diaz,  Fortuny,  James  Tissot,  Alphonse  Legros, 
Manet,  Whistler,  Fantin-Latour,  Degas,  Monet,  were  some  of  the  original 
admirers  of  Japanese  art.  Millet  and  Rousseau,  so  it  is  said,  quarreled  about 
who  should  have  prints  by  Hokusai.  And  of  these  enthusiasts  Alfred  Stevens 
was  not  the  least. 

His  imperturbable  Flemish  good  sense  kept  him,  however,  from  imitating 
Japanese  work  in  his  paintings.  He  was  content  to  make  his  interiors  richer 
and  more  bizarre,  with  Japanese  screens  and  stuffs  and  bronzes,  but  he 
kept  to  the  good  solid  fat  Flemish  tradition  of  painting, — a tradition  lost  for 
a long  time,  but  which  Baron  Leys  rediscovered,  as  it  were,  in  studying  the 
work  of  the  Van  Eycks.  One  says  this,  and  yet  it  may  be  that  a certain  thin- 
ness and  dryness  which  later  crept  into  Stevens’s  work  was  not  wholly  the 
result  of  old  age,  but  partly  of  this  Japanese  art.  For  Japanese  art,  with 
all  its  charm,  can  have  a bad  effect  as  well  as  good. 

At  the  gay  court  of  Napoleon  iii.  Stevens  was  always  a favorite.  Both  at 
the  Tuileries  and  at  the  country  parties  in  Compiegne,  where  there  were  very 
lively  doings,  he  was  persona  grata.  Perhaps  it  was  more  as  un  galant  homme, 
and  a witty  one  as  well,  rather  than  as  an  artist  that  he  was  welcomed;  still 
his  painting,  brilliant  yet  discreet,  was  very  much  admired  by  the  charming 
frail  creatures  of  the  court  whom  he  knew  so  well  how  to  paint. 

“A  lightsome  eye,  a soldier’s  mien” — these  things  Stevens  brought  with 
him,  and  more:  he  brought  the  reputation  of  a great  artist.  There  have  been 
artists,  like  Millet  and  Courbet,  who  could  not  have  lived  in  such  surroundings. 
But  with  Stevens  it  apparently  had  no  bad  effect,  for  surely  no  painting  could 
be  more  soigne  and  conscientious  than  was  his  at  that  time. 

The  wonderful  gay  world  of  the  Second  Empire  deserves  a word  m passing. 
Founded  in  corruption,  with  an  emperor  whose  very  birth  was  suspicious, 
with  an  empress  who,  though  beautiful,  was,  to  say  the  least,  indiscreet  and 
foolish,  this  period  still  had  its  own  charm  — the  charm  of  sans  gene,  oi  diablerie, 
of  joyousness.  Paris  was  never  gayer  than  in  this  time  of  the  Second  Empire. 
One  thinks,  in  reading  of  it,  of  that  false  court  to  which  came  the  Knight 
Geraint  and  his  Lady  Enid,  where  all  the  men  were  boors  and  all  the  women 

[25] 


26 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


wanton.  And  yet  a certain  elegance  went  with  this  corruption.  It  was  the 
time  of  crinolines,  of  crime,  and  of  crimson  joys. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  court  circles  that  he  was  famous  and  popular,  but  in 
the  quasi-literary  society  as  well,  especially  in  that  presided  over  by  charming 
and  well-born  blue-stockings  like  the  Princesse  Mathilde.  There  he  met  men 
like  Dumas  fils,  Flaubert,  the  Goncourts,  and  Edmond  About.  And  though 
the  art  of  these  men  lay  in  words,  Stevens  was  famous  among  them  all  for 
his  brilliant  wit  as  well  as  for  a certain  bon  sens  FI  amanJ, 'which  never  deserted 
him. 

Never  were  the  boulevards  gayer  or  more  brilliant  than  in  those  days. 
Old  men  who  know  their  Paris  will  tell  you  sadly  that  the  city  has  never  been 
so  lively  since  tbe  Franco-Prussian  War.  And  of  these  brilliant  boulevardiers 
Alfred  Stevens  was  not  the  least.  His  dashing  air  of  a cavalryman,  his  hand- 
some face,  and  his  brilliant  wit  made  him  a favorite  wherever  he  went.  He 
was  always  welcome  at  the  magic  heure  de  F Absinthe  m this  or  that  famous 
cafe.  He  was  an  habitiieoi  the  theatres  and  the  popular  restaurants.  In  short, 
he  was  part  of  tout  Paris,  and  for  years  he  was  able  to  live  the  brilliant  life  of 
a boulevardier  and  yet  to  paint  as  well  as  ever  each  morning  on  his  wonderful 
little  masterpieces. 

The  Franco-Prussian  broke  rudely  into  these  happy  times.  Stevens,  like 
the  son  of  a brave  soldier,  offered  his  services  to  the  Government  of  Paris 
during  the  siege.  And  when  one  thinks  of  the  Frenchman  Monticelli  running 
away  to  Marseilles  to  escape  the  siege,  while  the  outlander  Stevens  offered 
his  life  to  the  city  which  had  welcomed  him,  it  appears  that  there  may  after 
all  be  some  connection  between  honesty  in  art  and  honor  in  the  conduct  of 
life.  This,  with  the  resultant  change  in  the  government  of  France  from  an 
empire  to  a republic,  was  for  Stevens  the  beginning  of  the  end.  Never  after 
this  did  he  win  quite  the  same  success.  Never,  indeed,  did  he  again  paint  so 
well.  The  change  was  very  slow,  very  gradual.  It  was  twenty  years  in  the 
making,  yet  to  the  student  of  his  life  it  is  evident  the  war  marked  the  mo- 
ment. Before,  his  art  was  always  growing  and  improving;  afterwards,  it  began 
its  slow  beautiful  decay.  For  years  the  immensely  brilliant  technique  con- 
tinues, but  something  of  the  beautiful  simplicity  which  made  his  early  work 
not  unworthy  to  be  mentioned  in  tbe  same  breath  with  Vermeer  or  Ter- 
borch,  something  of  this  rich,  full,  simple  facture  is  gone. 

After  the  war  the  painter’s  life  began  again;  but  somehow  it  was  never 
quite  the  same.  Besides,  he  was  getting  older.  He  had  some  sort  of  malady, 
it  is  said,  induced  by  paint  poisoning,  and  bis  doctor  recommended  him  to  be 
out  of  doors  a great  deal  of  the  time.  It  is  from  this  period  that  his  marine 
paintings  date.  Some  of  them  are  quite  charming.  But  it  may  be  said  that 
Stevens  was  not  a born  landscape  or  sea  painter.  At  all  events,  bis  outdoor 
work  does  not  impress  one  as  being  so  true  or  so  closely  studied  as  bis  early 
Indoor  work.  Perhaps  it  was  that  he  was  getting  older,  for  his  indoor  work 
as  well,  at  this  time,  grows  thinner  and  sleazier  — it  lacks  la  belle  pate  of  the 
earlier  days.  And  it  is  not  so  well  drawn.  There  is  always  distinction,  but 
not  the  same  breath  of  life. 


[26] 


STEVENS 


27 


In  1880  the  city  of  Paris  put  a street  through  the  house  where  Stevens  had 
been  living  and  he  was  obliged  to  move.  He  took  a sumptuous  hotel  in  the 
rue  de  Calais,  and  installed  there  his  remarkable  collection  of  Japanese  and 
Indian  bric-a-brac.  But  the  change  seemed  to  mark  the  end  of  an  epoch  in  his 
life.  He  was  no  longer  so  strong  as  he  had  been. 

Stevens  lived  to  be  quite  an  old  man.  Though  he  was  always  considered  a 
great  painter  by  those  who  should  know,  his  vogue,  to  some  extent,  deserted 
him.  His  best  pictures  were  sold.  He  could  not  paint  for  sale  others  as  gcod. 
His  life  wore  out  with  little  incident  , and  he  died  in  August,  1900,  of  old  age. 
He  was  one  of  those  unfortunates  who  have  lived  too  long.  Though  his  best 
work  was  still  highly  appreciated,  he  was  too  old  to  thoroughly  savor  this  ap- 
preciation. He  was  too  old  ro  work  or  to  enjoy.  But  at  least  one  pleasure 
was  ^given  to  him.  A few  years  before  bis  death  a great  exhibition  was  held  at 
the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts  of  all  his  works.  This  was  an  honor  which  till  then 
had  only  been  accorded  to  a few  great  artists,  and  to  these  after  their  death. 
Stevens  in  a sense  tasted  of  his  own  immortality,  and  perhaps  something  of 
the  bitterness  of  old  age  was  taken  from  him. 

Stevens  has  been  praised  for  various  qualities,  and  first  as  a painter  of 
women;  for  men  seldom  appear  in  his  canvases,  and  if  they  do  it  is  in  a 
secondary  sense.  For  instance,  in  one  of  his  studio  scenes  the  artist  watches 
his  model  preparing  for  the  sitting.  But  for  the  most  part  men  do  not  ap- 
pear at  all.  This  big,  broad-sbouldered  painter,  a cavalry-officer  in  appear- 
ance, Le  Beau  Sabreur,  as  he  was  sometimes  called,  delighted  in  painting  lit- 
tle nervous,  modern  women,  doing  the  various  delightfully  unimportant 
things  that  so  often  make  up  their  lives.  While  he  would  not  have  called  him- 
self a psychologist,  yet  he  was  fond  of  noting  the  various  little  nuances  of  ex- 
pression or  of  action  that  float  across  the  life  of  a modern  woman. 

For,  again,  it  was  modernite  that  interested  him.  His  pictures  are  wholly  of 
their  day  and  generation.  It  was  the  life  about  him  that  engaged  him.  He 
made  no  effort  to  reconstitute  the  costume  or  character  of  a past  epoch,  but 
he  was  quick  to  notice  the  characteristic  or  beautiful  expressions  of  his  own 
time,  so  that  if  his  pictures  had  no  other  worth  they  still  would  be,  as  docu- 
ments of  his  period,  of  great  interest  to  the  historian.  But  of  course  there 
was  much  more  than  this  to  his  work.  It  was  modern  to  be  sure,  but  he  made 
no  effort,  as  did  contemporary  novelists,  like  Balzac  or  Zola,  to  describe  the 
whole  Human  Comedy,  or  to  render  all  the  characteristic  aspects  of  an  era. 
Rather,  in  his  somewhat  restricted  sphere,  he  looked  about  him,  saw  what 
was  beautiful,  and  selected  the  most  charming,  even  more  than  the  most 
characteristic,  elements. 

At  the  same  time,  almost  unconsciously,  he  was  the  painter  par  excellence 
of  the  reign  of  the  third  Napoleon.  His  best  period  coincided  with  this  time 
— for,  though  he  painted  much  later,  his  last  works  were  hardly  so  good  as 
those  of  his  early  and  middle  life.  He  had  the  courage  to  find  the  costume 
of  his  day  beautiful.  It  has  again  become  the  mode  to  admire  the  flower-like 
forms  of  the  crinoline;  but  Stevens  at  the  very  time  it  existed  found  the  cos- 
tume of  his  day  beautiful,  and  painted  it  delightfully,  as  it  appeared  to  him. 

[27] 


28 


MASTERS  I N ART 


More  than  any  other  painter  that  one  knows,  he  had  the  gift  to  paint  the  dress 
of  his  time  realistically,  to  be  sure,  and  yet  in  so  seductive  a manner,  with  so 
much  of  artistry,  that  his  pictures  remain  delightful,  while  the  pictures  of 
other  men  of  the  same  time  seem  demode  and  grotesque. 

Again  Stevens  has  been  called  an  Intimiste,  whatever  that  may  mean.  It 
is  a term  that  is  a little  hard  to  define,  this  word  Intimiste;  but  one  may,  per- 
haps, give  an  idea  of  what  is  meant  by  the  word  by  saying  that  a man  who 
could  paint  a few  pussy-willows  in  a glass  of  water  in  such  away  as  to  indicate 
their  charm  might  be  called  an  Intimiste,  while  a man  who  could  dash  in  a 
huge  mass  of  red  peonies  in  a brass  vase  in  a decorative  manner  would,  what- 
ever his  virtues,  hardly  be  called  an  Intimiste.  Not  that  Stevens  painted  in 
the  meticulous  way  demanded  in  painting  pussy-v>'illows,  but  he  did  have  the 
gift  of  suggesting  something  of  the  intimate  charm  of  things,  although  this 
probably  came  about  merely  because  he  made  them  very  well. 

And  this  brings  us  to  Stevens’s  real  quality- — that  he  was  a great  painter. 
Probably  a man  never  lived  who  better  understood  the  value  and  interest  of 
paint  in  itself.  His  work  looked,  as  the  French  say,  good  enough  to  eat.  And 
yet  this  does  not  really  express  its  charm,  for  it  was  something  beyond  that. 
He  brought  the  charm  of  surface,  of  paint  quality,  of  excellent  brush-work  to 
such  a point  that  one  felt  it  to  be  a very  important  matter  — more  important, 
indeed,  than  it  really  is.  In  looking  at  his  work,  at  his  best  things,  one  is 
tempted  to  think  that  these  matters  of  brush-work,  of  appetizing  surface,  of 
belle  pate,  of  la  bonne  peinture,  in  short,  are  matters  of  the  first  importance; 
that  nothing  else,  indeed,  matters  very  much  if  only  these  qualities  are  well 
secured. 

But  Stevens  would  have  been  the  last  man  to  have  said  this  himself.  And 
it  is  on  account  of  his  other  very  real  qualities  of  justness  of  observation,  of 
truth  in  rendering,  his  senseof  beauty,  especially  of  thebeautyof  color, — these 
things  are  what  cause  him  to  be  taken  very  seriously  by  the  most  competent 
artists.  Although  he  was  a past  master  in  the  art  of  brush-work,  it  was  Van 
Eyck  who  had  his  admiration  rather  than  Rubens.  One  of  his  aphorisms  was 
that  before  one  could  paint  a mustache  with  one  stroke  of  the  brush  it  was 
necessary  to  learn  to  paint  it  hair  by  hair.  His  brush-work  was,  so  to  say,  a 
mere  by-product  of  his  artistry;  for  he  understood  perfectly  well  that  the  great 
qualities  of  a work  of  art  are  things  beyond  mere  smartness  of  handling.  It 
is  as  a great  painter  par  excellence  that  he  will  be  chiefly  known.  For  when  a 
group  of  artists  are  gathered  together,  and  the  qualities  of  great  modern 
artists  are  under  discussion,  it  is  Stevens  m the  end  who  is  spoken  of  as  the 
modern  man  who  combined  in  himself  most  of  the  gifts  of  a painter. 

Stevens’s  best  work  keeps  “ le  juste  milieu,''  and  yet  this  is  not  the  result 
of  timidity,  but  of  level-headedness, — of  calm  Flemish  joy  in  the  handsome 
aspect  of  things.  There  is  charm  to  his  work  — undoubted  charm.  But  in 
his  best  work  it  is  a by-product  as  we  have  said,  never  gained  at  the  expense 
of  truth,  solid  technique,  or  unaffiected  arrangement.  It  is  apparently  uncon- 
scious, a something  in  the  man  which  informed  each  figure  he  made.  His 
technique  is  the  despair  of  painters, — perfectly  sound,  logical,  direct, — and 

[28] 


STEVENS 


29 


yet  there  is  a charm  to  it,  an  appetizing  quality  which  the  most  enrage  paint 
teazers  never  get. 

One  asks  one’s  seif  what  it  is  that  makes  him  so  great,  and  it  may  be  this; 
that  he  begins  (at  a point  in  technique  far  beyond  where  most  painters  leave 
off)  to  embroider  flowers  of  charm,  and  even  sentiment,  on  the  solidly  woven 
canvas.  His  technique  is  at  the  same  time  the  soundest  and  most  appetizing 
of  his  time,  and  this  makes  one  think  of  one  of  his  own  sayings,  “We  don’t 
disquiet  ourselves  enough  in  these  days  about  execution,  metier,  painting  for 
painting’s  sake;  but  we  shall  be  forced  to  go  back  to  it  — and  only  those  who 
possess  this  master  quality  are  assured  of  immortality.” 

What  makes  Alfred  Stevens  more  than  a mere  fashionable  painter  of  pretty 
women  is  the  probity  and  justness  of  his  vision  and  of  his  technique.  He 
might  have  been  immensely  more  popular  than  he  was  had  he  chosen  to  paint 
merely  pretty  faces.  But  his  types,  though  often  of  a curious  beauty,  are  sel- 
dom what  one  would  call  really  pretty.  The  slight  and  curious  perversions 
from  the  ideal  were  just  what  interested  him.  He  was  so  enamoured  of  Life 
and  Truth  that  he  preferred  to  paint  the  charming  women  about  him  just 
as  they  were,  making  no  effort  to  twist  their  features  to  some  ideal  type. 

One  thing  that  makes  Stevens  different  from  other  men  is  his  style.  His 
pictures  remind  one  at  first  sight  of  the  little  Dutch  masters,  yet  they  are 
really  essentially  different.  He  had  all  a Belgian’s  love  of  paint  as  paint.  The 
best  Dutch  work  seemed  to  transcend  all  paint  or  painter’s  quality  and  come 
to  something  very  like  the  real  thing,  the  very  aspect  of  nature.  With  Stevens, 
although  his  pictures  are  often  surprisingly  true,  one  always  feels  the  stylist. 
He  had  a way  of  putting  on  paint, — one  feels  a little  the  clever  stroke, — 
though  he  was  intelligent  enough  to  try  to  subdue  this. 

Stevens’s  technique  is  said  to  have  been  somewhat  as  follows:  he  painted 
in  his  picture,  presumably  upon  a careful  drawing,  in  square  touches  of  thick, 
fat  paint.  This  first  painting  was  done  de  premier  cou p or  alia  prima.  That  is, 
it  was  not  made  over  a frotte,  or  rub-in,  but  painted  directly  on  the  white  can- 
vas, touch  by  touch,  with  deliberation.  Great  care  was  taken  to  keep  the 
surface  smooth.  Any  irregularity  or  roughness  of  surface  was  smoothed 
down  with  a palette  knife.  And  this  first  painting  formed  the  basis  of  that 
famous  email,  or  enamel,  that  Stevens’s  admirers  were  always  talking  about. 
Furthermore,  when  this  was  thoroughly  dry  and  hard,  it  was  rubbed  down 
as  smoothly  as  possible  with  pumice-stone.  On  this  subsequent  repaintings 
and  “glazes”  were  made,  but  the  enameled  surface  of  the  canvas  was  care- 
fully retained. 

Later  Stevens  came  to  paint  much  more  freely.  He  was  more  sure  of  him- 
self, put  the  color  on  very  directly,  and  grew  to  value,  partly  on  account  of  the 
ill-advised  praise  of  friends,  the  clever,  brilliant  look  of  his  brush-strokes.  One 
of  his  paintings,  which  was  shown  in  the  Exposition  of  i88g,  was  a curious 
example  of  this.  He  had  been  painting  an  important  picture  called  'The 
Salon,’  and,  wishing  to  try  the  effect  of  certain  changes  in  his  color-scheme, 
he  put  a glass  over  the  picture,  and  where  he  wished  to  make  changes,  there  he 
painted  on  the  glass.  A connoisseur  coming  in  admired  the  fresh  juicy  touch 

[29] 


30 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


of  the  master  so  much  that  he  persuaded  him  to  carry  the  sketch  made  on 
glass  to  a certain  sort  of  completion.  The  picture  was  interesting  as  a tour  de 
force,  with  its  brilliant  little  touches  of  paint  directly  put  on. 

Stevens’s  drawing  was  really  very  good,  and  yet  a little  lacking  in  refine- 
ment. That  is,  although  he  had  studied  under  Ingres,  his  drawing  had  none 
of  that  subtlety  which  the  name  Ingres  suggests  to  one’s  mind.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  proportions  are  always  admirable.  One  feels  that  just  about  thus 
and  thus  sat  the  figure;  that  the  head  was  just  so  large  in  relation  to  the  body. 
He  is  not  above  getting  one  eye  too  high  for  the  other;  but  the  great  thing 
about  his  drawing  is  that  it  is  always  that  of  an  artist.  There  is  always  a sense 
of  style  to  it,  even  though  it  be  a painter’s  style  rather  than  a draftsman’s. 

It  has  been  said  that  while  Stevens’s  composition  is  not  always  good,  his 
design  is  always  fine.  The  present  writer  would  put  it  just  the  other  way. 
Usually  his  composition  was  fairly  good.  That  is,  he  pushed  the  figures  and 
furniture  about  until  they  were  fairly  well  placed,  each  in  relation  to  the 
others,  and  his  color  composition  was  almost  always  good  and  often  beauti- 
ful. But  his  sense  of  pattern,  of  the  arabesque,  as  Mr.  George  Moore  would 
put  it,  is  not  so  marked  nor  yet  so  subtle  as  with  Whistler  orwith  Albert  Moore. 

If,  then,  Stevens  pushed  about  his  little  figures  and  bits  of  furniture  till 
they  made  a fairly  good  arrangement,  in  the  matter  of  design,  he  was  hardly 
so  successful.  The  design,  the  arabesque,  or  silhouette  of  his  main  groups 
was  the  last  thing  he  thought  of.  His  pictures  were  not  the  result  of  a pro- 
found study  of  rhythm  and  repetition  in  line.  It  is  true  that  sometimes,  as 
in  the  ‘Billet  de  Faire  Part’  (Plate  x)  the  arrangement  of  line  comes  rather 
handsomely;  but  in  many  of  his  pictures  there  is  no  particular  arrangement 
of  line  at  all.  The  fact  is,  one  must  always  think  of  him  as  a painter  first  and 
foremost.  He  often  got  other  qualities  as  well,  but  it  is  evident  that  qualities 
of  color  and  effect  were  his  first  preoccupation. 

The  gesture  of  Stevens’s  little  figures,  while  always  sufficient  and  charac- 
teristic, is  seldom  of  the  sort  that  engrosses  one.  Necessarily  in  pictures  of 
his  sort  that  was  a quality  which  became  secondary.  His  little  people  were  of 
the  modern  kind,  who,  whatever  they  may  feel,  make  but  little  expression  of 
emotion  beyond  a raised  eyebrow  or  the  corner  of  a lip  turned  down.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  understood  perfectly  well  how  to  make  the  action  of  his  fig- 
ures express  the  style  and  manner  of  their  little  world.  His  puppets  are  mon- 
daines,  and  every  movement  shows  the  languid  grace  of  une  dame  du  monde. 

Stevens  has  been  rather  obscured  by  the  vogue  of  Whistler  on  the  one  hand 
and  of  the  Impressionists  on  the  other.  But  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  will 
come  to  his  own  some  day.  Speaking  of  Whistler,  by  the  way,  it  may  be 
said  that  Stevens,  together  with  Degas,  was  almost  the  only  modern  painter 
of  whom  he  ever  spoke  with  respect.  They  were  quick  to  perceive  his  tacti- 
cal error  and  never  would  admit  that  he  was  particularly  good. 

Stevens  was  a painter’s  painter,  and  yet,  what  does  not  always  happen,  a 
favorite  of  amateurs  cognoscenti,  and  even  of  the  man  in  the  street.  His  best 
work  — and  most  of  his  best  work  was  done  before  the  Franco-Prussian  War 
— was  of  marvelous  quality.  Very  “fat”  in  facture,  and  yet  pushed  to  quite 

[30] 


STEVENS 


31 


a surprising  state  of  finish.  His  pictures  are  good  bric-a-brac;  they  have  an 
amusing  surface  quality,  and  yet  they  are  good  art  as  well.  They  look,  the 
best  of  them,  very  much  like  nature.  Only  he  was  a charmer.  He  told  the 
truth  in  a delightfully  seductive  manner.  Next  to  the  charm  of  his  facture 
perhaps  his  color  is  his  most  admirable  quality.  This  color  has  nothing  sweet 
or  pretty  about  it,  and  yet  there  is  a rarity,  a distinction  to  it,  which  is  very 
fine  and  satisfying. 

As  a colorist  Stevens  was,  indeed,  remarkable.  He  had  the  gift  to  make 
harmonies  of  color.  As  a matter  of  fact  he  had  made  symphonies  in  gray,  in 
yellow,  or  in  blue,  before  Whistler  was  known  at  all  as  a painter.  Only  he 
did  not  call  them  symphonies.  But  he  could  always  vary  his  color  and  intro- 
duce a note  or  notes  of  opposing  or  complementary  color,  always  with  perfect 
tact  and  discretion,  so  that  the  contrast  came  as  a relief  or  divertisement,  but 
never  as  a jarring  note.  Apart  from  his  color-schemes  his  coloring  of  flesh 
was  excellent;  so  much  so  that  one  is  never  particularly  conscious  of  the  color 
of  the  flesh.  It  simply  looks  right  in  the  general  harmony  of  things. 

Stevens  had  so  many  good  points  that  it  is  hard  to  fix  on  one  in  particular. 
But  surely  this  quality  of  color  was  one  of  the  things  in  which  he  excelled.  His 
color  was  not  only  beautiful  in  itself  and  in  detail,  but  also  the  general  color- 
scheme  of  his  pictures  was  almost  always  beautiful.  One  often  remembers 
his  pictures  by  the  color-scheme,  although  his  drawing  in  his  best  period  is 
perfectly  good.  It  is  difficult,  too,  to  analyze  the  charm  of  his  color.  While 
the  separate  tones  are  handsome  enough  of  themselves,  it  is  by  their  relations 
to  other  tones  that  they  are  most  beautiful;  and  this,  indeed,  is  a mark  of  the 
true  colorist, — that  in  making  a tone  he  thinks  always  of  the  other  colors  in 
the  picture. 

One  of  our  most  brilliant  and  able  modern  portrait-painters  bas  said  that 
Stevens’s  best  work  is  the  equal  or  even  at  times  superior  to  that  of  the  Little 
Masters  of  Holland, — men  like  Vermeer,Terborch,  and  Metzu.  Greatpainter 
as  Stevens  was,  it  yet  seems  that  this  praise  is  somewhat  excessive.  He  never 
carried  his  work  so  far  as  the  best  Dutch  work  has  gone  and,  at  the  same 
time,  he  never  quite  attained  to  their  wonderful  ensemble.  His  work  has  all 
the  charm  of  modernite,  and  the  charm,  too,  that  a mondaine  air  can  give,  so 
that  the  thoughtless  might  give  him  the  palm  over  the  bourgeois  creations  of 
theDutch  painters.  But  if  he  has  thecharm  of  modernness  he  alsohas  some- 
thing of  its  defects.  His  work,  like  almost  all  modern  work,  is  petulant.  It 
lacks  the  fine  calmness,  sobriety,  and  simplicity  which  seem  to  have  been  the 
secret  of  the  old  men.  There  is  no  more  instructive  contrast  than  that  between 
his  work  and  that  of  the  greater  elder  men.  He  knew  their  work  thoroughly, 
he  delighted  in  it;  and  with  no  effort  to  imitate  it  he  did,  nevertheless,  try  for 
many  identical  qualities  in  his  own  work.  His  own  work  was  very  remark- 
able— among  painters  it  is  regarded  as  the  work  of  the  nineteenth  century 
which,  technically,  is  the  most  impeccable.  At  the  same  time,  when  one  com- 
pares his  work  with,  let  us  say,  a fine  Metzu,  to  speak  of  a man  not  the  great- 
est of  Dutch  painters,  one  perceives  that  the  work  of  the  elder  man  is  superior. 
If  it  lacks  the  allure  which  Stevens  certainly  possessed,  it  is,  on  the  other  hand, 

[.-U] 


32 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


more  highly  finished,  and  at  the  same  time  simpler  in  effect.  The  touch  is 
more  limpid.  The  color,  though  not  so  brilliant,  is  really  finer;  and  the  draw- 
ing, at  least  in  the  case  of  Metzu,  is  more  nervous,  subtler,  and  more  correct. 

In  the  case  of  De  Hooch,  one  of  course  perceives  that  his  figures  are  im- 
mensely inferior  to  those  of  Stevens,  both  in  construction  and  in  finish.  On 
the  other  hand,  Stevens  never  even  began  to  attain  the  wonderful  chiaroscuro, 
the  sense  of  light  and  air,  that  was  De  Hooch’s  birthright.  Stevens,  indeed, 
was  first  and  always  a figure  painter,  and  a painter  of  still-life,  stuffs,  and 
textures.  His  interior  effects  are  usually  good  enough  to  escape  criticism,  but 
are  not  remarkable  for  atmosphere.  Again,  with  Vermeer,  while  Stevens’s 
colorations  are  more  opulent,  he  never  arrives  at  the  Dutchman’s  power  of 
design,  his  sense  of  light  and  shade,  and  of  atmosphere.  Nor  is  his  color  so 
subtle  and  beautiful,  even  though  it  is  more  sumptuous. 

Stevens’s  relations  with  the  Impressionists  were  rather  curious.  He  was  at 
one  time  a good  friend  of  Manet  and,  indeed,  did  him  many  good  turns  by 
helping  him  to  sell  his  pictures.  Later  a coolness  developed  between  the  two 
men.  It  is  said  to  have  been  caused  by  the  exhibition  of  Manet’s  ‘Le  Bon 
Bock,’  a portrait  of  Dumoulin,  the  engraver,  about  to  drink  a “ bock,”  or  glass, 
of  beer.  Stevens  on  seeing  the  picture  remarked,  “It  is  good,  but  he  is  drink- 
ing beer  of  Harlem.”  This  meant  that  Manet’s  painting  suggested  too  much 
the  work  of  the  famous  Franz  Hals,  of  Harlem.  Manet  never  forgave  Stevens 
for  this  witticism. 

The  Impressionists  perturbed  Stevens.  He  felt  that  they  had  a new  word 
to  say,  but  he  was  too  able  an  executant,  he  knew  his  old  masters  too  well, 
not  to  also  feel  that  these  youngsters  spoke  their  piece  haltingly  and  clumsily. 

Whistler  was  another  intimate  friend  of  Stevens.  In  fact  Stevens  was  one 
of  the  few  moderns  whom  Whistler  was  willing  to  admit  as  a well-equipped 
and  able  painter.  It  is  a question,  indeed,  whether  Stevens  admired  so  much 
the  work  of  Whistler.  He  admired  Whistler  as  im  bel  esprit  and  as  a painter 
whose  work  was  full  of  character;  but  Stevens  was  too  good  a painter  himself 
not  to  see  the  various  shortcomings  of  Whistler’s  art.  The  relations  between 
the  two  men,  however,  always  remained  cordial. 

At  the  height  of  his  reputation  Stevens  commanded  magnificent  prices. 
The  story  is  told  that  Vanderbilt  called  at  his  studio  and  stopped  before  a 
picture.  “How  much  ?”  “Sorry,”  replied  the  painter,  “but  the  picture  does 
not  belong  to  me.  It  is  M.  Petit’s.”  The  man  of  many  millions  passed  to 
another  picture,  asked  the  same  question,  and  got  the  same  answer.  Several 
times  this  occurred.  At  last,  stopping  before  another  canvas,  he  asked,  “And 
this  too  belongs  to  M.  Petit.?”  “That  one  is  mine.”  “And  how  much?” 
“Fifty  thousand  francs.”  “Then  it  is  yours  no  longer.  It’s  mine.” 

A quasi-student  of  Stevens  was  Henri  Gervex,  the  painter  of  the  once- 
famous  ‘Rolla,’  and  a man  who  in  his  day  was  a very  able  painter.  Gervex 
painted  Stevens  himself,  in  his  high  “chapeau  de  forme a very  effective  pre- 
sentment, which  Stevens  is  said  not  to  have  liked.  The  two  men  working  to- 
gether made  a huge  cyclorama  of  Paris  at  different  times  during  the  nine- 
teenth century.  And  while  it  never  attained  quite  the  success  it  deserved,  it 

[32] 


STEVENS 


33 


was  nevertheless  one  of  the  show  sights  of  Paris.  Gervex,  who  was  a good 
portrait-painter,  is  said  to  have  made  the  portrait  of  the  famous  men  such  as 
Hugo,  Renan,  and  De  Lesseps,  while  Stevens  painted  women,  charming  or 
otherwise,  such  as  Madame  Recamier,  George  Sand  and  Sara  Bernhardt. 

Stevens  had  for  a number  of  years  in  Paris  a class  in  painting  for  women, 
and  while  none  of  these  became  very  remarkable  painters  it  must  be  said  that 
his  instruction  was  excellent.  The  women  had  a big  studio  next  to  that  of 
tbe  master.  Here  all  day  they  struggled,  and  here  almost  every  day  at  eve- 
ning the  master  came  and  criticized  their  work,  now  praising  it,  more  often 
finding  defects.  He  never  would  let  his  students  see  him  paint.  Like  most 
masters  he  kept  the  secret,  if  it  were  a secret,  of  the  “pattern  in  the  carpet” 
to  himself.  But  such  of  his  teachings  as  have  come  to  us  are  interesting  and 
stimulating,  though  sometimes  vague  and  contradictory,  as  criticism  not 
directed  to  the  work  at  hand  must  always  seem. 

The  master  wrote  a little  essay,  or  collection  of  apothegms,  which  he  called 
‘Impressions  of  a Painter.’  No  painter  has  ever  written  with  more  intelli- 
gence and  good  sense  about  his  art.  His  sympathies  are  very  broad,  and  yet 
he  does  not  make  the  mistake  so  often  committed  by  cognoscenti  of  supposing 
that  there  are  a hundred  equally  good  ways  of  doing  a thing.  He  perceives 
clearly  that  there  is  but  one  right  way,  and  that  a man’s  work  is  important  in 
so  far  as  he  comes  near  to  that  right  way.  Many  of  these  maxims  stick  in 
one’s  head,  and  a number  of  them  are  quoted  in  another  part  of  this  number. 


Che  art  of  ^tt\)tns 

FERDINAND  KHNOPFF  ‘THE  ART  OF  THE  LATE  ALFRED  STEVENS BELGIAN  PAINTER’ 

WHEN  in  February,  1900,  a group  of  French  painters  in  Paris,  under  the 
presidency  of  the  Comtesse  Greffulhe,  the  grande  dame  of  art,  obtained 
for  the  Belgian  painter,  Alfred  Stevens,  the  honor  (hitherto  without  precedent 
for  a living  artist)  of  an  exhibition  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts,  that  subtle 
poet  the  Comte  Robert  de  Montesquiou  wrote  a preface  for  the  catalogue,  in 
which  he  formulated  his  delicate  appreciation  of  the  master  in  so  definite  a 
fashion  that  I cannot  do  better  than  simply  transcribe  it  here  in  great  part: 
“Alfred  Stevens,  the  last  — and  perhaps  the  first  — of  those  lesser  Flem- 
ish masters  who  were  great  masters,  since  he  surpasses  Terborch  and  yields  in 
no  point  to  Vermeer. 

“Stevens,  whom  I would  willingly  call  the  sonnettiste  of  painting,  for  the 
art  with  which,  in  his  ex(|uisite  panels,  he  combines  so  harmoniously  all  the 
sheen  of  mirrors  and  satins,  of  lacquers  and  enamels,  of  eyes  and  of  gems. 

“Stevens,  concerning  whom  the  present  sovereign  ot  Flanders  might  have 
repeated,  on  sending  him  to  France  (a  gift  precious  above  all  others),  tbe 
Duke  of  Burgundy’s  words  about  Van  Fyck,  ‘1  send  you  my  best  workman!’ 

[33] 


34 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


“Among  the  many  claims  of  this  subtle  monographist  of  the  eternal  femi- 
nine to  our  admiration  I would  signalize  the  art  with  which,  in  his  skilful  and 
refined  pictures,  he  varies  the  motif  of  Woman  and  Love  under  the  form  of 
that  billet-doux,  so  often  torn  and  scattered  to  the  winds  like  the  petals  of  a 
white  rose;  till  Stevens  might  almost  be  called  the  ‘ peintre  aux  billets f as  an 
old  Swiss  master  was  once  the  ‘peintre  aix  oeilletsd 

“I  claim  another  merit  tor  him  — for  that  future  of  his  which  already  ex- 
ists in  the  present  — in  his  contribution  to  the  history  of  costume.  In  the 
retrospective  view  of  Alfred  Stevens’s  canvases  we  find  the  curious  fashions  of 
the  Second  Empire,  and  especially  those  Indian  cashmere  shawls  of  which 
Stevens  will  ever  remain  the  unique  painter,  as  was  his  master  Vermeer  of 
Delft,  of  those  vast  unrolled  maps  which  hang  azure  oceans  and  many-colored 
continents  on  the  peaceful  walls  of  Dutch  interiors.  . . .” 

“In  December,  1895,”  says  M.  J.  Du  Jardin,  “there  was  a feast  for  the 
eyes  in  the  Maison  d’Art,  Avenue  de  la  Toison  d’or,  Brussels.  Here  were  to 
be  found  collected  together  the  greater  number  of  the  works  of  the  celebrated 
artist.  He  has  obtained  — let  us  put  it  on  record  — all  the  highest  distinc- 
tions and  official  honors  to  which  he  attaches  great  importance,  while  honestly 
doubting  whether  he  had  deserved  them.” 

And  this  was,  indeed,  an  entire  feminine  world,  which  justified  the  follow- 
ing noteworthy  remarks  by  Camdle  Lemonnier: 

“I  recognize  two  great  painters  of  womanhood  in  the  present  century, — 
Alfred  Stevens  and  Francois  Mdlet.  Poles  asunder  as  they  are  in  their  point 
of  view  they  have,  in  their  two  methods  of  understanding  her,  summed  up  the 
modern  woman  from  one  extreme  to  the  other.  Millet’s  woman  does  not  live; 
she  gives  life  to  others.  Stevens’s  lives  herself  and  gives  death  to  others.  The 
atmosphere  breathed  by  the  former  is  eternally  refreshed  by  the  winds,  and 
is  bounded  only  by  the  great  open  firmament.  The  latter,  on  the  contrary, 
breathing  an  atmosphereof  poison,  stifles  in  mystery,  paint,  and  perfumes.  . . . 
Alfred  Stevens  and  Francois  Millet  open  out  in  their  women  great  vistas  into 
the  unknown.  They  each  present  the  problem  of  woman,  and  pose  her  in  the 
attitude  of  an  ancient  sphinx.  The  world  of  woman  touches  the  world  of  man, 
moreover,  at  so  many  points  that  to  paint  woman  is  to  paint  us  all,  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave.  It  will  be  the  characteristic  mark  of  the  art  of  this  cen- 
tury that  it  has  approached  contemporary  life  through  woman.  Woman 
really  forms  a transition  between  the  painting  of  the  past  and  the  painting  of 
the  future.” 

ALFRED  STEVENS  ‘IMPRESSIONS  OF  A PAINTER’ 

The  public  easily  confound  romance  with  the  true  artistic  poetry. 

One  can  by  instinct  become  a painter  of  worth,  but  one  can’t  do  a work 
of  genius  save  by  showing  great  good  sense. 

The  sincere  approbation  of  his  confreres  is  for  a painter  the  most  flattering 
of  recompenses. 

So  many  painters  stop  when  the  hard  part  begins. 

One  comes  into  the  world  a draftsman  just  as  one  is  born  a colorist. 

[34] 


STEVENS 


35 


They  ought  to  have  an  exhibition  every  five  years  where  each  artist  could 
only  expose  a single  figure  which  “says  nothing.” 

They  ought  to  take  from  the  Louvre  more  than  fifteen  hundred  pictures. 

Woe  unto  the  painter  who  only  obtains  the  approbation  of  women! 

One  is  only  a great  painter  on  condition  of  being  a master  workman. 

One  must  know  how  to  paint  a mustache  hair  by  hair  before  one  permits 
one’s  self  to  wipe  it  in  with  a single  stroke  of  the  brush. 

Nothing  hurts  a good  picture  more  than  bad  neighbors. 

A fine  picture  of  which  one  admires  the  effect  at  a distance  ought  equally  to 
bear  analysis  when  one  looks  at  it  near  to. 

The  critic  of  art  has  a penchant  to  occupy  himself  more  with  the  literary 
side  than  with  the  technical  part. 

True  artists  have  a preference  for  “les  belles  laiJes.” 

We  must  be  of  our  own  time:  we  must  submit  to  the  influence  of  the  sun,  of 
the  country  in  which  we  dwell,  of  our  early  education. 

A man  does  not  understand  his  art  well  under  a certain  age. 

One  should  learn  to  draw  with  the  brush  as  soon  as  possible. 

Execution  is  style  in  painting. 

Even  a mediocre  painter  who  paints  his  own  period  wdl  be  more  interest- 
ing to  futurity  than  one  who,  with  more  talent,  has  only  painted  times  which 
he  has  never  seen. 

A picture  can  only  be  judged  justly  ten  years  after  its  execution. 

Painters  who  depict  their  own  time  become  historians. 

We  can  judge  another  artist’s  sensibility  from  a flower  that  he  has  painted. 

In  the  art  of  painting  one  must  first  of  all  be  a painter;  the  thinker  comes 
afterwards. 

A picture  should  not,  as  is  commonly  said,  stand  out  from  its  frame;  the 
very  opposite  should  be  said. 

Time  beautifies  sound  painting  and  destroys  bad. 

Bad  painting  cracks  in  stars;  good  painting  becomes  like  fine  crackle 
china. 

To  paint  modern  costume  does  not  constitute  a rriodernist.  The  artist  at- 
tracted by  modernity  must  above  all  be  impregnated  with  a modern  feeling. 

By  looking  at  the  palette  of  a painter,  we  may  know  with  whom  we  have  to 
reckon. 

The  execution  of  a fine  painting  is  agreeable  to  the  touch. 

A true  painter  is  always  a thinker. 

Certain  Dutch  masters  seem  to  have  painted  with  precious  stones  ground 
into  powder. 

To  have  a master’s  picture  retouched  is  a crime  that  ought  to  be  seveiel)^ 
punished  by  law. 

Nothing  is  pardoned  in  a single  figure  picture;  many  things  are  excused  in 
a picture  with  several  figures. 

Painting  is  not  done  for  exhibitions;  refined  work  is  smothered  at  the  Salon; 
“shouters”  come  off  better. 

Nothing  can  equal  the  happiness  felt  by  a painter  when,  after  a day’s  labor, 

[35] 


36 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


he  is  satisfied  with  the  work  accomplished;  but  in  the  contrary  case  what 
despair  is  his! 

The  Flemings  and  the  Dutch  are  the  first  painters  in  the  world. 

An  arm  by  Rembrandt,  though  perhaps  too  short,  is  yet  alive;  an  arm  by 
the  proficient  in  theory,  though  exact  in  proportion,  remains  inert. 

Rubens  has  often  been  of  harm  to  the  Flemish  School,  while  Van  Eyck  has 
never  been  anything  but  its  benefactor. 

KENYONCOX  ‘PAINTERSANDSCULPTORs’ 

Between  1820  and  1830  men  began  to  wish  to  paint  again.  They  were 
no  longer  willing  to  do  without  color  or  the  delight  of  free  and  beautiful 
handling,  and  they  tired  of  restricting  their  art  to  the  delineation  of  Greek  and 
Roman  heroes  with  straight  noses  and  curly  hair.  The  love  of  light  and  color 
took  them  to  the  Orient,  or  they  looked  at  the  pictures  of  Rubens  and  Ver- 
onese and  began  to  paint  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Renaissance  because  they 
loved  silks  and  brocades  better  than  abstract  draperies.  Gradually  it  dawned 
upon  them  that  the  old  masters  had  painted  their  own  times  and  that  they 
might  do  the  same.  They  went  into  the  fields  and  painted  the  landscape  they 
saw  there, — Troyon  began  to  paint  cattle.  Millet  to  paint  peasants,  Courbet  to 
paint  the  bourgeoisie.  Finally,  about  i860,  they  dared  again  the  fashionable 
lady,  not  merely  in  portraiture,  but  as  the  subject  of  a picture.  The  last  of  the 
academic  restrictions  on  the  subject-matter  of  art  was  swept  away. 

And  so  we  come  back  to  the  name  with  which  we  set  out,  that  of  Alfred 
Stevens,  for  no  man  has  painted  the  modern  woman  of  fashion  as  well  as  he. 
A Belgian  by  birth  and  early  training,  a Parisian  by  choice,  he  combined  the 
wit  and  elegance  of  his  adopted  city  with  something  of  the  old  Dutch  and  Flem- 
ish schools, — the  result  being  an  art  of  bis  own  with  a flavor  unlike  any  other. 
Manet  and  Whistler  were  just  beginning  their  careers  when  Stevens  was  doing 
some  of  his  best  work,  tor  there  is  charm  in  the  sound  and  quiet  painting  of 
the  sixties  that  I do  not  find  to  the  same  extent  in  that  later  work  which  shows 
him  as  the  cleverest  of  virtuosi.  Terborch  or  Vermeer,  who  told  no  stories, 
might  not  have  understood  the  delicate  mixture  of  irony  and  sentiment  in 
such  pictures  as  ‘Une  Mere’  or  ‘Une  Veuve,’ — theywould  hardlyhave  cared 
for  the  fine  literary  skill  and  the  exquisite  restraint  with  which  the  incidents 
are  presented, — but  assuredly  they  would  have  appreciated  the  just  notation 
of  light  and  color,  the  perfect  drawing,  the  absolute  rendering  of  substance 
and  texture.  They  would  have  seen  in  him  a craftsman  of  their  own  lineage, 
a pupil  of  whom  they  might  be  proud.  In  ‘La  Dame  Rose,’  of  tbe  Brussels 
Museum,  they  would  have  found  a picture  after  their  own  hearts,  and  while 
they  might  miss  something  of  its  serious  beauty  in  his  later  canvases,  neither 
they  nor  any  true  painter  that  ever  lived  could  fail  to  admire  the  combination 
of  subtle  tone  and  color,  with  extreme  ease  and  brilliancy  of  manipulation, 
which  makes  them  almost  unique  in  art.  For  us  there  is  the  added  interest  in 
the  earlier  paintings  that  the  dresses  of  forty  years  ago  have  already  become 
historic  costumes,  and  have  taken  on,  as  such,  a picturesqueness  which  we 
cannot  yet  find  in  those  of  twenty  years  later,  which  are  merely  out  of  fashion. 

[36] 


STEVENS 


37 


%i)t  i^orfes  of  ^tebens 

DESCRIPTIONS  OF  THE  PLATES 

<THE  LADY  WITH  A FAn’  PLATE  I 

The  picture  of ‘The  Lady  with  a Fan’  was  painted  in  what  may  be  called 
Stevens’s  early  middle  period.  He  had  come  to  a freedom  greater  than 
in  his  earlier  works.  At  the  same  time,  he  made  his  pictures  out  of  full  “fat” 
paint,  in  a manner  quite  different  from  his  rather  dry  later  period.  This  partic- 
ular picture  is  a sort  of  “symphony  in  yellow,”  for  symphonies  in  color  were 
made  by  Stevens  quite  as  early  as  by  Whistler.  With  the  yellow  came  certain 
brown  tones  as,  for  instance,  the  gloves. 

The  reason  for  being  of  the  picture  is,  apart  from  the  color  arrangement, 
the  beautiful  effect  of  shadow  made  visible  by  reflected  light,  which  one  sees 
on  the  head.  This  picture  was  exhibited  in  1890,  the  first  year  of  the  so-called 
New  Salon  or  Salon  of  the  Champs  de  Mars.  Stevens  was  one  of  the  dissent- 
ing artists  from  the  “Old”  Salon,  and  gladly  became  a societaire  in  the  New. 
This  picture  was  one  of  a panel  of  paintings  by  Stevens,  which  had  been  bor- 
rowed from  the  owners.  It  formed  a sort  of  retrospective  exhibition  of  his 
work  and  was  greatly  admired.  This  picture  of  the  lady  in  yellow  had  a par- 
ticular success,  and  was  by  many  considered  one  of  the  finest  things  the  Bel- 
gian painter  had  done.  It  is  one  of  the  handsomest  paintings  in  color  that 
Stevens  made,  and  color  was  his  strong  point. 

‘A  MORNING  IN  THE  COUNTRY’  PLATE  II 

This  Uttle  scene  of  young  people  enjoying  country  life  is  one  of  the  most 
delightful  of  Stevens’s,  and  curiously  enough  is  one  of  the  very  few  of  his 
early  pictures  which  represent  plein  air  or  outdoors.  This  effect  is  passably 
well  indicated;  but  the  picture,  having  been  made  before  the  great  interest  in 
outdoor  work,  depends  for  its  success  on  other  qualities  than  those  made  fa- 
mous by  the  Impressionists. 

This  is  one  of  Stevens’s  good  compositions.  The  “spotting,”  or  balancing, 
of  the  different  white  masses  one  with  another,  and  of  the  various  dark  spaces 
each  with  each,  is  very  well  managed.  The  skilful  way  in  which  the  white 
book  is  made  to  break  up  a rather  large  dark  mass  is  an  admirable  touch, 
and  the  introduction  of  the  dog,  just  in  the  right  place,  with  touches  of  white 
and  of  black  to  serve  as  “rappels”  to  other  masses  — light  and  dark  — is 
really  quite  a triumph. 

‘THE  LADY  IN  BLUE’  PLATE  III 

ANOTHER  picture  which  appeared  in  the  first  exhibition  of  the  Champs 
de  Mars  was  ‘The  Lady  in  Blue.’  This  picture,  while  rather  slight,  was 
painted  at  the  very  summit  of  Stevens’s  career,  when  he  had  worked  out  of 
the  tightness  of  his  earlier  style  and  had  not  yet  fallen  into  the  rather  thin 

[.37] 


38 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


technique  of  his  later  days.  To  begin  with,  the  costume,  though  rather  quaint 
to  our  modern  eyes,  is  charming.  The  color  arrangement,  too,  which  unfor- 
tunately cannot  he  judged  in  this  reproduction,  is  delightful.  It  is  in  different 
shades  of  blue  with  certain  strong  notes  of  black  which  give  the  picture  force. 
The  hands,  while  not  drawn  with  the  incisiveness  of  an  Ingres,  are  yet  indi- 
cated with  delightful  skill,  and  the  weary  little  head,  far  more  than  the  paint- 
er’s ‘Sphinx  Parisien,’  deserves  to  be  called  sphinx-like.  There  is  an  air  of 
weariness  about  the  little  lady.  She  looks,  as  the  Irish  say,  as  if  her  heart  was 
broke  for  pleasure.  Tbe  fashion  of  the  hair,  which  one  hnds  in  drawings  by 
Du  Maurier  of  a parallel  date,  is  of  a (juaint  charm  which  recalls  the  days  of 
chignons  and  of  “waterfalls.” 

d his  picture  in  particular  is  what  has  been  called  a painter’s  picture.  Apart 
from  tbe  skilful  painting  of  the  head  and  hands,  the  indication  of  the  ruffles 
about  tbe  hands,  and  the  masses  of  black  wbicb  give  relief  and  accent  to  the 
whole  thing,  are  touched  in  a very  knowing  way.  Also  note  the  little  album, 
apparently  of  cartes-de-visite,  which  is  indicated  in  a clever  manner. 

‘EVERY  joy’  plate  IV 

TOUS  LES  BONHEURS’  (‘Every  Joy’)  is,  perhaps,  a rather  senti- 
mental title,  for  Stevens  could  be  sentimental  with  the  best.  Some- 
times he  was  a little  too  much  so,  as  in  his  picture  of  the  young  widow  with  a 
cupid  sticking  his  head  out  from  under  the  table.  But  in  this  case  the  senti- 
ment is  that  which  might  truly  hang  about  a “thing  seen,”  and  is  indeed  (]uite 
legitimate  and  unforced.  The  young  mother,  who  has  just  come  in  to  nurse 
her  child  (the  gloves  thrown  on  the  floor  are  little  touches  in  Stevens’s  earlier 
anecdotic  manner);  the  child  so  intent  on  its  business  and  so  unconscious; 
all  the  pieces,  like  the  crib  with  its  pretty  detail  of  a little  picture  of  the  Ma- 
donna hanging  inside; — all  these  things  go  to  make  up  a picture  of  a great  deal 
of  charm  of  sentiment  and  of  execution. 

The  dress,  of  a brown  velvet,  is  painted  in  a sumptuous  way,  while  the  cash- 
mere  shawl,  so  beloved  by  Stevens,  and  so  cbaracteristic  of  the  epoch  of  the 
third  Napoleon,  is  rendered  with  great  exactitude,  and  yet  in  nowise  unduly 
attracts  our  attention.  Everything,  indeed,  is  very  much  of  its  epoch  — of  a 
style  which  we  no  longer  count  beautiful,  and  yet  Stevens,  by  sheer  power  of 
painting,  has  made  it  interesting,  existent,  and  also  of  a certain  vague  senti- 
mental allure, 

‘a  JAPANESE  mask’  PLATE  V 

The  interesting  things  about  this  picture  are  Stevens’s  effort  to  arrange 
two  markedly  antagonistic  types  one  against  the  other  and  the  sense  of 
repeated  lines  which  one  gains  from  the  attitude  of  the  two  heads  and  back. 
The  same  sort  of  subject  has  been  done  a good  deal,  but  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  Stevens  was  among  the  first  to  do  it.  As  to  the  mask,  one  wishes 
that  the  high-light  in  the  eye  did  not  shine  so  glaringly.  It  is  one  of  the  few 
cases  where  Stevens  has  indicated  a false  value.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a 
rhythm  of  repeated  line  in  this  composition  rather  unusual  with  Stevens. 

[38] 


STEVENS 


39 


‘MISSFAUVETTE’  PLATE  VI 

MISS  FAUVETTE’  is  in  Stevens’s  most  sprightly  vein.  Why  he  called 
it  “Miss”  Fauvette  does  not  appear.  To  a painter  the  interest  in  the 
head  and  figure  comes  largely  from  the  fine  effect  of  reflected  light.  It  is  in- 
teresting, also,  to  note  how  delightfully  Stevens  has  painted  the  crinoline, 
which  by  many  has  been  considered  unpalntable.  But  here  it  gives  a flower- 
like look  to  the  design  and  is  distinctly  charming  in  effect.  Charming,  too, 
is  the  black  hat,  with  its  long  ostrich  plume,  and  the  inevitable  shawl  thrown 
across  the  chair.  Stevens’s  composition  while  never  very  original  is,  on  the 
other  hand,  always  rather  studied  in  regard  to  details.  Sometimes,  Indeed, 
he  puts  in  too  much  detail.  In  this  picture  the  relations  of  the  figure  with  its 
environment  are  well  considered. 

<THE  VISIT’  PLATE  VII 

This  ‘Visit,’  where  one  charming  little  lady  peeks  from  behind  a screen 
at  another  pretty  creature  who,  in  a luminous  obscurity  seems  dreaming 
of  nothing  in  particular,  marks  the  beginning  of  a gradual  change  in  Stevens’s 
composition  from  the  anecdotic  to  the  sort  where  an  arrangement  is  made 
and  painted  purely  for  its  own  beauty.  The  real  artistic  reason  for  being  of 
this  picture  is  the  contrast  between  the  delicate  half-light  of  the  figure  behind 
the  screen  with  the  full  light  on  the  face  which  is  nearer  us.  Stevens  was  such 
a realist  that  he  sometimes  obscured  his  own  intention  by  the  relentless  way 
in  which  he  finished  the  details.  And  m this  picture  bits  like  the  tassels  about 
the  painting  on  the  wall,  and  the  very  marked  design  on  the  Japanese  screen, 
almost  destroy  one’s  perception  of  the  above  stated  chief  motive  for  the  pic- 
ture’s existence.  At  the  same  time  these  things  are  in  themselves  delightfully 
done,  and  Stevens  had  this  in  common  with  that  \ an  Eyck  whom  he  so  much 
admired,  that  he  could  push  details  to  the  furthest  limit  without  greatly  in- 
juring the  effect  of  his  picture.  This  came  about  from  various  reasons,  but 
one  of  these  reasons  was  that  his  light  and  dark  arrangement  is  usually  pretty 
good;  that  is,  he  arranged  with  skill  the  balance  of  light  masses  and  the 
contrasting  masses  of  dark.  Having,  then,  his  general  effect  in  light  and  dark 
masses  quite  strongly  indicated,  he  was  the  better  able  to  carry  the  detail  in 
these  things  to  a quite  remarkable  extent. 

‘consolation’  plate  VIII 

‘ /CONSOLATION’  is  quite  in  the  nature  of  a subject  picture,  and  yet  it 
V_>  is  evident  enough  that  the  young  Stevens  was  particularly  interested  in 
the  fine  contrast  of  black  and  white  in  his  arrangement.  The  heads  and  the 
little  figures  are  not  made  with  that  preciocite  which  distinguished  Stevens’s 
later  technique;  but  they  are  very  well  made  none  the  less.  Indeed,  it  may 
be  said  that  on  the  whole  Stevens’s  earlier  work  was  better  made  than  his  later. 
Here  the  technique  is  a little  “tight,”  as  painters  would  say,  but  hardly  more 
so  than  that  of  the  best  Dutch  masters.  The  way  in  which  the  white  handker- 
chief is  contrasted  against  the  black  glove  is  skilfully  managed,  and  the 

[39] 


40 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


contrast  of  different  textures,  as  always  with  Stevens,  is  well  observed.  The 
white  crinoline  dress,  far  from  being  ridiculous,  has  a full  flower-like  aspect 
which  one  misses  in  the  dress  of  to-day. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  types  of  face  are  hardly  so  individual  and  in- 
teresting as  those  Stevens  later  came  to  paint.  On  the  other  hand,  the  skill 
with  which  every  detad  is  made,  without  at  all  iniuring  the  general  effect,  is 
remarkable.  Among  the  interesting  bits  we  may  notice  the  wall  paper,  which 
is  made  in  the  extremest  detail,  every  bit  of  the  design  being  studied  out, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  the  wall  stays  flat.  Apart  from  its  artistic  merits, 
the  picture  will  always  have  its  particular  interest  as  a document  of  life  and 
manners  in  the  reign  of  the  third  Napoleon. 

‘UN  SPHINX  PARISIEN’  PLATEIX 

UN  SPHINX  PARISIEN’  is  perhaps  not  so  very  sphinx-like  after  all. 
Stevens  was  not  primarily  a psychologist.  While  as  a man  of  the  world 
he  was  interested  in  all  things,  his  real  talent  lay  in  painting  the  beautiful 
things.  Here  the  arms  are  delightfully  made,  better  drawn  than  in  many  of 
Stevens’s  works.  The  effect  of  lio;ht  coming  from  behind  with  its  relation  to 
the  reflected  light  on  the  front  of  the  figure  is  well  considered.  Note  also  the 
skilful  way  in  which  the  black  masses  are  Introduced  as  foils  to  the  white 
dress.  When  we  come  to  examine  the  face  we  find  it  interesting,  mutine, 
perhaps  no  more  sphinx-like  than  the  face  of  any  pretty  woman. 

‘LE  BILLET  DEFAIRE  part’  PLATE  X 

LE  billet  DE  FAIRE  PART’  is  one  of  the  best  of  Stevens’s  composi- 
> tions,  with  its  discreetly  triste  figure  cutting  the  upright  gilt  lines  on  the 
wall.  The  picture,  too,  is  well  placed  in  relation  to  the  figure,  and  the  chair 
and  table  are  in  good  position  except  that  to  our  eyes,  accustomed  to  “Arts 
and  Crafts”  styles,  the  design  of  the  table  does  not  look  very  handsome.  While 
the  pattern  on  the  carpet  is  rather  confused  and,  indeed,  quite  ugly,  on  the 
other  hand  it  is  painted  with  great  skill.  The  way  in  which  the  floor  is  made 
to  “lie  flat”  is  remarkable.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  hands  are  rather 
small,  but  they  are  very  prettily  painted.  The  face,  too,  with  its  discreetly 
arranged  dark  bonnet, telling  well  against  the  white  ground,  is  quite  charming. 

Stevens  seldom  painted  a face  that  one  would  call  really  pretty  except  in 
his  earliest  pictures.  In  these  he  proved  that  he  could  make  a pretty  face  if 
he  chose.  But  later  he  came  to  be  interested  in  the  espi'egle  or  world-weary 
types  of  the  Second  Empire  which,  while  not  exactly  beautiful,  had  a charm 
which  is  not  always  found  with  regular  features.  Possibly  Stevens  would  be 
more  widely  known  if  he  had  painted  strictly  pretty  faces.  As  it  was,  his  paint- 
ings were  for  the  most  part  quickly  snapped  up  by  connoisseurs  and,  till 
quite  recently,  have  not  been  much  reproduced.  So  that  his  pictures,  while 
quite  well  known  to  artists  and  dilettanti,  are  hardly  known  at  all  to  a great 
mass  of  people  who  love  art. 


[40] 


STEVENS 


41 


A LIST  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  PAINTINGS  BY  STEVENS 


IN  PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  COLLECTIONS 


Belgium.  Antwerp,  Museum  of  Beaux-Arts:  Hopelessness;  The  Parisian 
Sphinx  (Plate  ix)  — Brussels,  Collection  of  Mme.  de  Bauer;  The  Confine- 
ment— Collection  of  Mme.  ve  Cardon:  Remember;  The  Visit  (Plate  vii);  The  Hun- 
garian Pianist  — Collection  of  M.  E.  Claremboux:  View  of  Cape  Martin — Collec- 
tion of  J.  and  A.  LeRoy  Bros.:  The  Soldiers  of  Vincennes  — Collection  of  M.  Le- 
guiME:  Lady  Knitting  — Collection  of  the  late  M.  E.  Marlier:  The  Morning  in 
the  Country  (Plate  ii)  — Royal  Museum:  Every  Joy  (Plate  iv);  The  Studio;  Autumn 
Flowers;  The  Lady  in  Rose-color  — Collection  of  M.  A.  Saerens:  Fedora;  The 
Japanese  Mask  (Plate  v);  Le  Billet  de  Faire  Part  (Plate  x)  — Collection  of  M.  F. 
Rohers:  Revery  — Collection  of  M.  P.  du  Toict:  Revery  — Collection  of  M.  R. 
Waracoue:  The  Last  Day  of  Widowhood;  The  Four  Seasons;  The  Cup  of  Tea  — 
FRANCE.  Paris,  Luxembourg:  The  Passionate  Song — Collection  of  Mme.  la 
Princesse  Borghese:  Cruel  Certainty  — Property  of  Durand-Ruel:  The  Visitor 
— Collection  of  M.  C.  Gausco:  The  Lady  in  Yellow  (Plate  i)  — Collection  of 
M.  G.  V.  Hugo:  Miss  Fauvette  (Plate  vi)  — Collection  of  M.  E.  LeRoy:  Idleness 
— Collection  of  M.  Lhermitte:  The  Lady  Bathing  — Collection  of  M.  le 
BARON  DE  Mesnil  DE  St.  Front:  Ophelia;  Portrait  of  the  Baronne  de  Mesnil  de  Saint- 
Front — Collection  of  M.  de  comte  de  Montesquiou:  The  Mirror  — Collection 
OF  M.  G.  Petit:  The  Little  Girl  and  the  Duck — Collection  of  M.  A.  Roux;  The 
Drawing-room — Collection  of  M.  L.  Sarlin:  The  Visit  to  the  Studio  — GER- 
MANY. Berlin,  Collection  of  M.  L.  Ravena:  Consolation  (Plate  viii). 


LAMBOTTE,  PAUL.  L’oeuvre  de  Alfred  Stevens.  Brussels,  1907.  Lemonnier, 
C.  Alfred  Stevens  and  son  ceuvre.  Brussels,  1906 — -R.  comte  de  Montesouion- 
Fezensac.  Alfred  Stevens.  Paris,  1900 — Reinach,  J.  Histoire  du  siecle  1789-1889. 
Paris,  1889  — Impressions  on  Painting.  New  York,  1886. 


Architect  and  contract  reporter,  1906:  Alfred  Stevens— Bur- 
lington Magazine,  1909:  D.  S.  Maccoll;  Portraits  of  Alfred  Stevens.  1909: 
E.  F.  Strange;  Alfred  Stevens  — International  Studio,  1906:  F.  Khnopft';  The  Art 
of  the  late  Alfred  Stevens — Les  Arts,  1906:  G.  Mourey;  Alfred  Stevens  — Onze 
Kunst,  1907:  P.  Lambotte;  Alfred  Stevens  — Revue  Bleu,  1900;  Exposition  de  Al- 
fred Stevens — Revue  Illustree,  1900:  A.  Segard;  Alfred  Stevens. 


A LIST  of  the  principal  books  and  magazine  articles 


DEALING  WITH  STEVENS 


MAGAZINE  ARTICLES 


[41] 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


ALFRED  STEVENS 

AND  HIS  WORK 

By  Ca  mi  lie  L emonnier 

Including  “Impressions  on  Painting”  by  Alfred  Stevens 

A HANDSOME,  large  quarto  volume,  15  x 19  inches  in  size,  con- 
taining 42  full-page  plates  in  photogravure,  reproducing  the  most 
important  of  the  artist’s  paintings  and  drawings  as  follows: 

LIST  OF  PLATES 


I. 

Reverie 

XXIII. 

Le  Sphinx  parisien 

II. 

Les  Chasseurs  de  Vincennes 

XXIV. 

Remember 

III. 

La  Femme  en  jaune 

XXV. 

Le  Pianiste  hongrois 

IV. 

Tous  les  bonheurs 

XXVI. 

La  Psyche 

V. 

La  Lettre  de  faire-part 

XXVII. 

Le  Salon 

VI. 

La  Consolation 

XXVIII. 

La  Tasse  de  the 

VII. 

La  Matinee  a la  Campagne 

XXIX. 

Les  Visiteuses 

VIII. 

Miss  Fauvette 

XXX. 

Le  Dernier  Jour  du  veuvage 

IX. 

X. 

L’Inde  a Paris 
L’Atelier 

XXXI. 

Les  Ouatre  Saisons  (Le  Prin- 
temps,  L’Ete) 

XI. 

XII. 

Fleurs  d’automne 
La  Tricoteuse  (La  Dame  en 
gris) 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

Les  Ouatre  Saisons  (L’Au- 
tomne,  L’Hiver) 

Le  Chant  passionne 

XIII. 

La  Fillette  au  Canard 

XXXIV. 

La  Bete  a bon  Dieu 

XIV. 

La  Visite 

XXXV. 

La  Visite  a 1’ Atelier 

XV. 

La  Dame  en  rose 

XXXVI. 

Fedora 

XVI. 

Cruelle  certitude 

XXXVII. 

Ophelie 

XVII. 

Desesperee 

XXXVIII. 

Reverie  (Pastel) 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

La  Femme  au  Bain 
Souvenirs  et  Regrets 

XXXIX. 

Portrait  of  Mme.  la  baronne 
du  Mesnil  de  Saint-Front 

XX. 

Le  Masque  japonais 

XL. 

Vue  du  cap  Martin 

XXL 

L’Accouchee 

XLI. 

Silhouette  de  Femme  (Dessin) 

XXII. 

Far-Niente 

XLII. 

Etude  (Eau-Forte) 

EDITION  LIMITED  TO  350  COPIES 


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